Jaime Motta Found Not Guilty of Human trafficking, Kidnapping and Sexual Assault After 2½ Years Behind Bars

Today, November 7, 2025, justice finally broke through the walls of Oconee County’s corruption. Jaime Motta has been found not guilty on all counts after spending nearly two and a half years in jail without trial.

He was arrested in June 2023 under sensational charges — human trafficking, kidnapping, and first-degree sexual assault — yet from the very beginning, Jaime’s account of events rang with the unmistakable clarity of truth. I knew the territory well. I’ve seen the filth that festers within Oconee County’s law enforcement, its so-called “justice” system, and its solicitor’s office. It was obvious from the start: this case had nothing to do with justice and everything to do with control, fear, and political cover.

A Corrupt Legacy

One of the prosecutors, Blair Stoudemire, the son of a longtime Oconee County solicitor, has built his own reputation by carrying on his father’s corruption — the same culture of arrogance and impunity that has haunted this county for decades. Stoudemire wanted this trial buried. He hoped Jaime would be deported quietly before the embarrassment of the facts could ever be aired in court.

Jaime was held for two and a half years without trial because they were banking on two outcomes: either he’d break under pressure and accept a plea deal, or immigration authorities would take him off their hands. The problem? Jaime was here legally. The federal government wanted nothing to do with Oconee’s fabricated mess. And Jaime refused to plead guilty to crimes he didn’t commit. He stood firm, demanding a trial and proclaiming his innocence from the first day to the last.

The Police Knew the Case Was Fraudulent

From the moment I started speaking with Jaime’s friends, his co-workers, and the man who had sponsored the alleged victim’s entry into the U.S., the official story fell apart. Every piece pointed in one direction — Jaime was innocent.

I called Ben Hailey, then the police chief of West Union, to hear his side. What he told me only deepened the outrage. Hailey admitted he had no evidence of human trafficking, but he was “sure” they’d get a conviction for kidnapping. His “primary evidence”? The word of the alleged victim — the same woman he admitted had fabricated the human trafficking claim entirely.

So let’s get this straight: the lead investigator admits the central accusation was made up, yet insists the rest of her story is true? Additionally, it appeared he had not interviewed any of Jaime’s friends and coworkers! That’s not law enforcement — that’s fraud, and it’s being done with taxpayer money and human lives. This case was never about justice. It was a plan to fill a jail cell.

The Silent Complicity of Oconee’s Leadership

For over a year, I’ve written letters and filed complaints with every authority that should have cared — the South Carolina Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the 10th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, the Oconee County Council, the Sheriff’s Department, and the West Union Police. Every single one of them ignored it. Not a single acknowledgment, not one whisper of accountability. The silence is deafening — and deliberate.

Jaime had been demanding a jury trial since I met him in May 2024. His trial was scheduled for November 3, 2025, but on October 30, I received a message from his mother: the Solicitor’s Office claimed they were “not prepared,” and the trial was postponed again — this time to February 2026.

Worse still, Judge Lawton McIntosh reportedly remarked that “under the circumstances” — meaning, the solicitor’s incompetence after 2½ years — “the trial could not move forward.” I immediately wrote letters to Micah Black (the elected solicitor of the 10th Circuit), the Attorney General, Alan Wilson, Judge McIntosh, Danny Foster, and the Oconee County Council, demanding that Jaime’s trial date be honored.

By that point, Jaime had been incarcerated for almost 900 days without so much as an evidentiary hearing. Twice, Judge McIntosh ordered the lead witness — the supposed victim — to be produced in court within 30 days. Twice, the Solicitor’s Office failed to do so. And twice, McIntosh allowed the illegal detention of Jaime Motta to continue.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy trial — generally interpreted as less than 180 days. Jaime, as a legal immigrant, has the same constitutional rights as any American citizen, no matter what McIntosh or the Solicitor’s Office think of that.

A Celebration Shadowed by a Larger Truth

Today, we celebrate. Jaime Motta walks free. His family, his friends, and everyone who stood beside him can finally breathe. After nearly 900 days behind bars, justice was served — but it was not delivered willingly. It was dragged out of a corrupt system kicking and screaming by the verdict of a jury.

This case is not an isolated miscarriage of justice. It’s a symptom of a diseased system. Oconee County’s courts and solicitor’s office have made a practice of prolonged detention to extract plea deals. They hold people hostage in the jail until desperation makes them confess to crimes they didn’t commit. Judges like Lawton McIntosh and prosecutors like Blair Stoudemire have turned due process into a farce, weaponizing delay and fear to protect their power.

Jaime’s acquittal is not the end. It’s a warning shot. His story exposes the machinery of corruption grinding behind the scenes in South Carolina’s 10th Circuit — where liberty is a privilege and truth is an inconvenience.

This victory is just one battle in a much bigger war, and we’re not done fighting.

UPDATE

And now, in the final insult to justice, Jaime is still being held in jail — not released. After being found not guilty on all counts, Oconee County is refusing to let him go. When he was arrested in 2023, his immigration paperwork was completely up to date. But after two and a half years of illegal incarceration, that paperwork has expired — and now the same system that stole his freedom is trying to have him deported again. Think about that: a man proven innocent by a jury, who should be walking free today, is instead sitting in a cell while bureaucrats scheme to erase their own embarrassment by shipping him out of the country. Is this what America has become? A place where an innocent man’s freedom depends on how long corrupt officials can stall his trial? Where “justice” means destroying a life and then pretending it never happened? This is not law and order — it’s retaliation, plain and simple.